I am married to someone who was born and raised in another country and he thinks very extreme southern accents make people sound not too bright. It’s probably more of a country southern accent. Some southern accents he appreciates and he likes the various sayings that are very southern, but some rub him the wrong way like when people say fixin’ to, and might could. The middle of the road accents I don’t think he has much of an opinion on. Basically any accent from any part of the country that sounds uneducated he notices. From yous guys in Jersey to saying ax instead of ask in the south to saying eye-talian in the midwest. Funny, he catches sometimes when people make grammatical errors or extreme pronounciation errors and just cannot believe an American born and educated here can make some of the mistakes. It is not only the accent, but also the speed at which someone talks. If it takes a person forever to get a sentence out, it doesn’t sound too swift. He loves British, Irish and similar accents. To him they sound much better than an American accent.